Archives for January 2005

USA Today: Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law. Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

t: Drug Control Office Faulted For Issuing Fake News Tapes. Shortly before last year’s Super Bowl, local news stations across the country aired a story by Mike Morris describing plans for a new White House ad campaign on the dangers of drug abuse. What viewers did not know was that Morris is not a journalist and his “report” was produced by the government, actions that constituted illegal “covert propaganda,” according to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office.

Given this administration’s fondness for fiscal recklessness, war-inducing lies, torture, attacks on civil-liberties and other misdeeds, these seem like minor matters. But the Bush White House’s contempt for honest journalism is really something to behold. Worse, it’s clear that the adminstration honchos believe the public doesn’t care — and that officials consider professional journalists to be utterly helpless in making anyone care.

…excerpt from: dangillmor.typepad.com…

Cory Doctorow:
CoolGov uncovered this US Highway Administration document that explains the numbering scheme behind the US interstate highway system.

* Major interstates routes have a one or two digit number associated with them. North-south routes have odd numbers (I-5) while east-west roads have even numbers (I-10).

* Connecting interstate routes or beltway loops around urban areas have 3 digit numbers (the 101).

* To prevent duplication within a state, a progression of prefixes is used for the three-digit numbers. For example, if I-80 runs through three cities in a state, circumferential routes around these cities would be numbered as I-280, I-480, and I-680.

* There�s no set standard on exit numbering, but states generally use one of two systems:
1. Milepost numbering. The southern or western-most point on a given interstate begins the odometer at 0. If an exit is 6.5 miles from that point, it�s exit #6 and so forth.

2. Consecutive numbering. Again, starting at the western or southern-most point, each exit is given a number, starting with 1. When they have to shoehorn more exits in, they become #6A, #6B, etc�

ttp://coolgov.com/”>Cool Gov)
…excerpt from: www.boingboing.net…

Starbucks says in a news release: “With Chantico drinking chocolate, we’re introducing our customers to the pleasures of drinking chocolate — transforming the way consumers think about chocolate, just as we transformed the way consumers experience coffee.” The drink, which debuts on Saturday, Jan. 8, is called “a liquid heart attack” by one STARBUCKS GOSSIP reader and Starbucks employee. (Read comments on the drink.) (Starbucks PR)a href=”http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/dining/drivethru/2977950″>Chantico review: “Imagine melted Godiva bars covered with hot fudge and Hershey’s syrup”

…excerpt from: starbucksgossip.typepad.com…

UPDATED

CNet’s interview with Bill Gates has any number of howlers, but a couple of them stand out.

He claims, for example, that Internet Explorer is the best browser. Insulting people’s intelligence is par for the course for Gates, but this one is beyond laughable.

More serious, and ugly, is Gates’ attack on people who want to restore a modicum of balance to today’s grossly tilted system of intellectual property. He snidely dismisses “some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don’t think that those incentives should exist.”

The purity of this lie is remarkable. Even the most ardent of the free-software folks are not trying to remove the incentive to be creative. They believe in a different kind of incentive, just not the mercenary one that motivates Bill Gates.

The larger truth — a principle for which Gates so frequently demonstrates such contempt — is that the vast, vast majority of people who find fault with today’s system still want to reward creators for their work, financially and otherwise. But we also want a system that balances the rights of creators with the rights and needs of the larger society.

Gates and his allies in the entertainment cartel want absolute control. For them, fair use and other societal benefits are what the intellectual property holders deem them t

…excerpt from: dangillmor.typepad.com…